


Legality

by Not_You



Series: A Gentleman of Negotiable Virtue [16]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, charles has had some seriously shit relationships, no one really cares about legality do they?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 11:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/638573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Raven gets to know Hank.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legality

Raven is really glad she doesn't know shit about shit. She has to go talk to Emma in case they need her in court, but all she can really say is that she's been staying with Erik and does not find him particularly stabby. She actually really likes having him around, and would try and poach him if the competition weren't her poor, sweet, brother that so many people overlook. She's not sure why. Sure, Charles can be a boring old man, but wheeling around keeps his arms cut as hell, and he's sweet-natured and has a pretty face, a brain, and his share of their whopping great inheritance. Compared to that, walking is overrated.

"Coffee, Ms. Xavier?"

"Thanks, Sophie." She takes the steaming cup and smiles at the girl. "You're looking pretty today."

She flushes, pleased. "You think?"

Of course Raven thinks so, because the only thing wrong with any of the Frost women is an eerie perfection. Today Sophie is wearing a cute little blue top with a sweetheart neckline and cap sleeves with a white miniskirt of the exigent length favored by girls who have just discovered the gangling beauty of their coltish legs. "We're being mean to the new clerk." She giggles.

Raven raises an eyebrow, remembering her own adolescence. "Don't be too mean."

"We're not. He's shy."

Hank is shy, which Raven finds out firsthand at a second meeting, when Emma is running late, apparently more of a harried soccer mom than she lets on. Hank is all shuffling feet and adorably timid smiles. He's older than he looks with that lean body and those giant feet, and he kinda makes her feel like a chickenhawk. But in a hot way, and she flirts with him outrageously, fully understanding why he brings out such sweet, kittenish meanness in the girls as he smiles and blushes and stammers.

"So," she says at last, pensive again, "what do you think of our chances?"

"I think it'll depend on the jury, Ms. Xavier."

"I guess it always does. We got a way to exclude citizens of a finer moral sensibility?"

"Ms. Frost says she's working on it."

And Ms. Frost is working on it, with her usual laser focus. She grills Raven about her brother's relationship, and ordinarily Raven wouldn't tell, but this is important and Charles is a prude. Yes, they are fucking, and yes, they are either in love or giving the best impression of it that she has ever seen. 

Emma sighs as Raven wraps up, looking her age instead of impossibly perfect for a moment. "I see."

"That bad?"

"Not exactly, it just raises the stakes for me, however much I wish it didn't."

"Aw, the Tin Woman has a heart at last."

Emma snorts. "Don't tell anyone."

Emma really is very kind underneath it all, but it doesn't show in court. Her cross-examinations are merciless, and her mind is just as cold, persistent, and single-purpose as a steel trap. Really, she makes more sense as a prosecutor, but knows how to play the warmth and humanity of others against her iciness on the defense. It would be better if she were defending Charles, who's so professorish and sweet, but there's something to be gained from Erik's aristocratic hauteur, because it cracks and melts any time Charles comes up. Raven doesn't know if she's ever seen a guy more in love, unless it's Charles, gazing up at Erik on the stand like he's the only thing in the world.

Erik's profession being what it was, a disquieting amount of their time is used defending his relationship with Charles. Raven has to excuse herself for most of this, to avoid a court date of her own. What the fuck do these people know about someone like Charles, so joyously sexual all his life only to catch a boulder to the spine and suddenly drop off the map? He had tried to do the thing properly, and had run into pity and abuse, everyone from the sweet-faced little ophthalmologist who had considered Charles an example of rescue dogs making the best pets because they're grateful, to the man who had found comfort in in the idea of stranding Charles at the bottom of a staircase to keep him from wandering and had told him so. After the first few years, it hadn't been worth the trouble. What the hell was is so wrong with the world's oldest profession, anyway?

She puts the question to Hank when he follows her out on one of the days he has accompanied his Dread Mistress to court, and he just sighs and puts his coat over her shoulders like he's following some kind of '30s-era manual of chivalry. Still, the courthouse is a miserable fucking barn, and she pulls it tight around herself.

"I could never do it, but I don’t care if others can. Hell, people have said the same thing about being a law clerk."

Raven laughs, and feels a little better.


End file.
